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Young Freya stays with her preoccupied mother in Cornwall when she meets teenage twins. "The only thing better than being aware of a secret," they tell her, "comes from possessing one of your own." In the weeks that follow, they sexually assault her, then inter her while living, combination of unease and frustration flitting across their faces as they eventually free her from her improvised coffin.

This could have served as the disturbing focal point of a novel, but it's merely a single of multiple horrific events in The Elements, which gathers four novellas – issued individually between 2023 and 2025 – in which characters navigate previous suffering and try to achieve peace in the present moment.

Debated Context and Subject Exploration

The book's release has been clouded by the inclusion of Earth, the subsequent novella, on the candidate list for a prominent LGBTQ+ writing prize. In August, the majority other contenders withdrew in dissent at the author's gender-critical views – and this year's prize has now been terminated.

Discussion of LGBTQ+ matters is missing from The Elements, although the author addresses plenty of big issues. Homophobia, the effect of traditional and social media, family disregard and assault are all examined.

Distinct Stories of Suffering

• In Water, a grieving woman named Willow moves to a secluded Irish island after her husband is incarcerated for horrific crimes.
• In Earth, Evan is a footballer on legal proceedings as an participant to rape.
• In Fire, the grown-up Freya balances retaliation with her work as a doctor.
• In Air, a father flies to a funeral with his teenage son, and ponders how much to disclose about his family's past.

Suffering is piled on suffering as wounded survivors seem destined to bump into each other again and again for forever

Interconnected Accounts

Relationships proliferate. We first meet Evan as a boy trying to flee the island of Water. His trial's panel contains the Freya who shows up again in Fire. Aaron, the father from Air, works with Freya and has a child with Willow's daughter. Supporting characters from one narrative resurface in cottages, taverns or judicial venues in another.

These storylines may sound tangled, but the author understands how to propel a narrative – his prior acclaimed Holocaust drama has sold millions, and he has been translated into numerous languages. His businesslike prose sparkles with gripping hooks: "in the end, a doctor in the burns unit should understand more than to toy with fire"; "the initial action I do when I come to the island is modify my name".

Personality Portrayal and Storytelling Strength

Characters are portrayed in brief, effective lines: the compassionate Nigerian priest, the disturbed pub landlord, the daughter at struggle with her mother. Some scenes resonate with tragic power or observational humour: a boy is punched by his father after wetting himself at a football match; a prejudiced island mother and her Dublin-raised neighbour swap barbs over cups of watery tea.

The author's ability of bringing you fully into each narrative gives the return of a character or plot strand from an previous story a authentic excitement, for the initial several times at least. Yet the collective effect of it all is numbing, and at times almost comic: trauma is piled on suffering, accident on coincidence in a bleak farce in which damaged survivors seem doomed to bump into each other again and again for forever.

Thematic Depth and Final Assessment

If this sounds different from life and closer to limbo, that is element of the author's message. These hurt people are burdened by the crimes they have suffered, caught in patterns of thought and behavior that agitate and spiral and may in turn hurt others. The author has discussed about the impact of his individual experiences of mistreatment and he portrays with understanding the way his cast negotiate this risky landscape, reaching out for remedies – seclusion, cold ocean swims, resolution or bracing honesty – that might let light in.

The book's "fundamental" structure isn't particularly instructive, while the quick pace means the exploration of gender dynamics or social media is mostly surface-level. But while The Elements is a flawed work, it's also a entirely readable, victim-focused epic: a appreciated riposte to the typical fixation on investigators and offenders. The author demonstrates how pain can run through lives and generations, and how duration and compassion can quieten its reverberations.